mealies

[drewlowe]

I tried to use the 1 bin method and it didn't work for me. I use bigger stackable bins i bought from walmart for somewhere around 2 dollars a piece. I use oats, wheat germ, wheat bran, rice baby cereal, evporated milk, tropical fish flakes, and carrots (for moisture). there are other things you can use also. i had the problem that the mealies ate the "aliens" or would eat the beatles. so i started separting the "aliens into the other bin. so in one bin i have mealworms, and the other bin is "aliens" and the beatles. And it's been working out very well for me. But i also started off with 3,000 mealies.

[RaVeNo888o]

then when the beetles lay eggs and baby mealies are born, you take out the mealies and put them back in with the other mealies? how long does it take the baby mealies to be big enough to remove?

[RaVeNo888o]

Hey...i bought 100 mealies the other day and i have them in roughly a 1'x1' rubbermaid..with about 2 inches of substrate (oats and wheat bran) ..i have 4 of those small carrotts in there and 2 potatoe halves..
Is that enough of the fresh food to provide water for them? The carrots have been sorta sunken in. does this mean that the mealies are eating them and moving around them? are you supposed to see visible signs of being eaten?

all of my mealies are under the surface, i assume that this is normal..will they come to teh surface to pupate though? if not how will i see them to remove them?

[RaVeNo888o]

UPDATE**
ive got about 4 pupae's and one is already a beetle, just finishing development, he cant walk yet. I guess i gotta get my other bin ready now.

[Pixie]

I too have 2 containers for my mealworm colonies. I found that if they were all in one once the colony got going, the mealworms would eat the pupae and I wouldn't get beetles to start up another colony.

I set up one colony in a rubbermaid on rolled oats, oat bran, wheat germ, powdered milk, vitamins and other tidbits I can throw in. I then let it go for a few weeks. In 2-3 weeks I can usually start seeing tiny worms in the substrate. The beetles don't live long enough to have them start the second colony so I have a few set aside that I leave grow and pupate. Those are thrown into the second bin to start off the second colony.

Whenever I find a pupated mealworm, I throw it in the second bin. By the time my first colony is depleted, my second is going strong and I use the first bin like the second and start another colony going.

Gives me more than enough mealies for my pets!

Good luck,
Pixie